Are there any hatches like the Green Drake hatch?

[fishingn00b101]

Last year, I got to experience a Green Drake hatch on spruce creek. I have to admit...it was the most exciting moment of my life. I fished until I couldn't see anymore, and even after that just because I didn't want it to end. The sheer volume of drakes was incredible. Starting an hour before it happened, you could see the drakes slowly descending from the top of the tree line...until they finally got down to the water. The water looked liked it was bubbling with millions of tiny green sailboats. The trout were going crazy. It was incredible. Still to this day, I have to admit...the most exciting day of my life.

I was just wondering if anyone knew of any other hatches like that?

 

[Acristickid]

Yes! I've had a few of those.

One particular night on Penns I was in the right pool on the right evening where there was a utter blanket of duns and coffin flies all over the water. A seemingly empty looking pool an hour earlier was alive with dozens of fish rising. The fish were all around me, some so close to me I could effectively fish for them. Think I caught 3 fish. That evening is burned into my memory.

My first real awakening to something like this was an unexpected sulphur spinner fall. I was actually fishing Penns for several days and struggling to catch fish there. On the way home I decided to stop at another river and I was so glad I did. The spinner fall was over 10 years ago but is still one of my fondest memories. Caught more fish in that last hour than I did at Penns in 3 days. Ha!

Cicadas 08. Ridiculous. All I can say.

Caught the zenith of hoppers on the bighorn in 09. After a few days of that I left and went to explore other rivers, guys in the campground were like - "dude, your gonna leave this and go somewhere else???"

So yes, I recall several! Good times indeed. Pretty infrequent episodes so that's what makes them so special. Still trying find a spinner fall like that first one.

 

[huntfish]

i also have experienced hatches like that. i was on a small brookie stream in the middle of nowhere expecting to hit the sulphur hatch. when i arrived in the evening bug activity was low, then all of a sudden tons and tons of sulphurs came off. then what happened next was the best part

hundereds of thousands of coffin flies started coming off. fish were jumping 3 and 4 at a time nonstop. it looked like it was snowing with all the flies on the water and coming off. absolutely amazing.

 

[pcray1231]

I was just wondering if anyone knew of any other hatches like that?

As incredible in terms of volume and size? No. Cept Green Drakes in locations that have a lot more of them than Spruce Creek does. Like Penns Creek is most famous, but virtually all of the NC limestoners and freestoners have em in large numbers.

Well, hexagenia's are very similar in many respects, though in PA, they are mostly western PA on largish, warmish rivers and even lakes. They can be found on smaller streams with trout, but in less impressive numbers.

Similar experience? Yes. And often better actual fishing too.

What you experienced was typical of a spinner fall. Other mayflies that can and do give you a similar "massive spinner fall" situation include: Sulphurs (several varieties), March Browns, Hendricksons, Trico's, Slate Drakes, Hexagenia, BWO's (Drunella variety), Blue Quills, Quill Gordons, etc.

It's all about the when and where. But most of them are reasonably predictable. If you put your mind to it and are willing to travel, you can be on a spinner fall like that somewhere in PA virtually every day from late April through September, weather permitting, of course.

 

[shortrod2]

fishingn00b101,

I don't want to squash your enthusiasm, but in my experience it is not as easy as pcray makes it sound. Maybe he has a much better crystal ball than I do.

 

[pcray1231]

I don't want to squash your enthusiasm, but in my experience it is not as easy as pcray makes it sound. Maybe he has a much better crystal ball than I do.

Some hatches are more difficult than others. But overall, no, it's not hard at all. It just takes time. Lots and lots of time. Meaning time to figure it out, time to peruse reports, and the time/freedom to be able to pick up and travel to wherever you need to be, whenever you need to be there. That time is what is hard to come by.

Sulphers: I can just about guarantee that if you go to Spring Creek on May 20th, assuming there wasn't a major storm that day or the day before, there will be a sulfur spinner fall in the evening. The consistent fall will last about 3-4 weeks. Whether it starts in late April or mid-May, I don't know, but come about mid-April we'll have a good idea. On through June and into early July there will be sporadic evening spinner falls as well, but they'll be less consistent and predictable. I used Spring Creek but the same goes for many, many streams.

Tricos: Starting likely in early July, and lasting through the first frost, streams that have good populations of tricos will see daily MORNING spinner falls. Excepting of course storm situations that can ruin a hatch for a day. The timing in the morning is also highly predictable, and it can be at the crack of dawn and concentrated on hot bluebird days. Later and more spread out on cloudy or drizzly days. As September cools, it will get later and later until by the first frost, it's a sparse, long lived spinner fall lasting into early afternoon.

Just a few examples. Mayflies are predictable creatures. The fish's response to them, well, that's a little harder to predict.

 

[McSneek]

The OP mentions the sheer volume of flies he experienced not just that he encountered a hatch. One that comes to mind for me is the peak of the white fly hatch on the Susquehanna. So many bugs they get down your shirt, in your eyes, etc. Drive home and 30 miles away you find a few live ones in your car.

 

[shortrod2]

Pat, everything you have said is absolutely true except for the "overall not hard at all" part. Your examples are cherry picking the very easiest to hit hatches.

Even with the cherry picking, I have had many days when the conditions seemed perfect but for what ever reason the Sulphurs or Tricos didn't show at all or didn't show enough to matter. Also many days when the bugs were on the water and the fish didn't seem to care.

Also the list of "streams that have good populations of tricos" is a pretty short list.

Throw in a year like last year, (which overall was a great year). Because the timing of when I could get away to fish was perfectly synchronized with the big storms raging across the entire state, I was unable hit a Sulpher hatch last year.

Most of the other hatches last about a week max, living two hours away from a stream with good hatches and having to work for a living means I have to be very lucky to be on the stream when the bugs are anywhere near their peak and the fish are actually on them.

 

[dryflyguy]

For years, I - and 4 buddies - used to take vacation the week of memorial day. Specifically to chase the green drake hatch. And we'd follow them around, where ever they happened to be hatching. Fishing, drinking beer, and camping out. The good life for sure.
And the fishing was sometimes great - and sometimes not so great.
There always seemed to be a certain amount of luck involved in it.

But the one hatch that can be counted on to consistently produce good fishing IMO, is the sulpher. Just about every stream that is worth fishing has them. And they hatch for a good month or more.
So, I pretty much got away from chasing the green drakes, and just plan my late spring trips with the sulphers in mind. And year after year, they're my most used pattern

 

[Fishidiot]

fishingn00b101 wrote:
I was just wondering if anyone knew of any other hatches like that?

Not really.

As others have pointed out. . .it depends if you're willing to compare apples to oranges. Some hatches have far more bugs, like the white fly. Other hatches provide reliably better fishing, like sulphers etc.

Nevertheless, the green drake hatch is pretty unique and amazing.

 

[sarce]

I didn't encounter any truly good drake hatches last year, out of 5 tries. Saw some, but not like you're describing. Hit the peak on Penns in 2013 and that was amazing and I would agree, nothing else like it. Even though I only caught one on a drake fly in 2 nights of fishing (and one on a caddis) the number and size of those bugs is incredible.

 

[pcray1231]

Also the list of "streams that have good populations of tricos" is a pretty short list.

Disagree. Could name two dozen quickly, and I'm sure there's plenty more. Most seem to have limestone influence, though, and being from Westmoreland/Tioga you're not really in the right area.

I have had many days when the conditions seemed perfect but for what ever reason the Sulphurs or Tricos didn't show at all or didn't show enough to matter.

Pretty rare, IMO, without explanation. There are plenty of times where I'm not sure if they'll show, meaning there's a reason they may not (usually weather related, meaning a storm that may or many not have put things off). Though knowing, for instance, that March Brown spinners come 3+ days after they hatch, but tricos the day after, means a lot. It means for MB spinners, any major storm in the last few days could derail them, and you need a fairly long period of stable weather. For trico's, just so it didn't storm that morning, you're good.

Also many days when the bugs were on the water and the fish didn't seem to care.

Agreed, and I acknowledged that the fish's response to the bugs is much harder to predict. I still try, but my accuracy rate is MUCH lower.

Most of the other hatches last about a week max, living two hours away from a stream with good hatches and having to work for a living means I have to be very lucky to be on the stream when the bugs are anywhere near their peak and the fish are actually on them

Most last well over a week. But yeah, as I said what is difficult is having the time to research it, peruse reports, call fly shops, and be able to pick up and go wherever you need to go whenever you need to be there. Given time and total freedom, a little knowledge can put you on hatches anytime you wish. Time isn't an easy thing to get.

In your situation, you have to be able to plan days if not weeks ahead, go, and hit it perfect on your first shot. That isn't so easy.

But even if you get a multi-day trip, I usually find I'm onto things by about day 3. From there I could probably hold myself on a hatch every day until a weather system comes through that's massive enough to shake things up everywhere. Then it's a couple more days of figuring things out.

Bug X starts on stream A, then starts on stream B, then starts on stream C.

By the time bug X is starting on stream C, bug Y is about to start on stream D.

All you need is a few days to figure out exactly where you are in this whole cycle and the rest falls into place.

 

[krayfish2]

For number of bugs that large, not really. If you were amazed by the number of insects, you need to explore other PA hatches that probably dwarf the insect count of the drakes... Grannom, Trico and White Fly. As others have posted, sulphurs can be quite heavy depending on the stream. Some waters have good Hendrickson hatches, some have good March Brown / Grey Fox hatches. I'd suggest doing a little reading on PA hatches so that you give yourself the best opportunity to find the bugs. If you want to see a hatch like you've never seen....catch the white flies on the Susky.

One other thing I should mention....you could chase the drakes for ten more years and not hit it a sweet as you did on Spruce. That's just how things work in this game. I've gutted the March Brown hatch in 2005 and 2013....tried every year but they eluded me. IMHO, drake are something to witness one in your fishing life but suck for fishing (when the spinnerfalls are as heavy as Penns, BFC and others)

 

[shortrod2]

fishingnoob101,

One hatch that maybe very close too the GD would be its cousin the Brown Drake.

I say maybe because I have never seen a Brown Drake. The bug is closely related to our Green Drake but does not exist in nearly as many streams.

Interestingly, the Brown Drake has a wider distribution than the GD which is only found in the east and mid-west. The Brown Drake exists in the west all the way to California and Alaska.

Another down side is that the hatch is said to only last about 3 days.

 

[pcray1231]

I don't know of anywhere where the BD comes off in massive numbers. Not saying it doesn't happen, but it's unusual.

Of large flies that have short, concentrated, super heavy hatches and spinner falls like that, the hex is the obvious. Also closely related to GD's, and much more famous nationwide for the mega swarms.

http://guide.sportsmansguide.com/mayfly-swarm-old-testastment-style/

And PA isn't totally immune. These are all Allegheny River:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBL69W7G3gc

http://bugguide.net/node/view/326392

http://old.post-gazette.com/regionstate/20010608mayflies0608p2.asp

 

[krayfish2]

BD isn't a heavy hatch typically.

 

[shortrod2]

pcray and krayfish,

I have never seen one so I am only going by what I have read.

Here is an example from Trout Nut:

"It can also create good Eastern hatches in places like the lower Delaware drainage in the Catskills, where its blizzardlike hatches burn out after a few days."

 

[krayfish2]

If you sit at home for 20 yearswaiting for the correct conditions .....and arewilling to fish between 9pm and3am, you MIGHT see one of the fabled 'blizzard hatches'. Been fishing that area since 87....haven't seen one yet. It doesn't take many to get the fish interested. They're huge.

 

[Chaz]

When the drakes are on Pine it doesn't get much better, unless the hendricksons are on in early spring. Then there's the snow like hatches of caddis of several species that all seem to burst from Pine Creek around May 1. Then there's the last big hatch of the year, fall caddis on Pine.
But the green drakes are something to see, even if you don't catch fish. It's pretty special when the drakes are hatching on larger brookie streams, even on sparsely populated brookie streams the fishing is good.
As for brown drakes I saw them last year while the GD's were hatching on Pine, but it wasn't the hatch that the GD was.

 

[JMG]

Yes, I was lucky enough to witness and fish the cicadas hatch on Penns Creek back in 2008. We would listen for them at the back door of my cabin then follow them. We walked down next to the creek at night and you could literally hear the fish rising and crunching on the cicadas. They should be hatching again like that in 2025 since they only hatch every 17 years like that, give or take a year. But IMO, the Green Drake hatch on Penns Creek is #1 in my book.